Sony Vaio TT on video, this is the Burgundy Red colour
Raon Digital recently announced a cheaper version will be available in November : features a 16GB SSD (MLC) and a SEMPRON CPU running at 1.2GHz .
Last train home is always full of surprises, tonight a young guy stumbled on to the train and slummed down next to the door, a few minutes later he vomited against the door and all over himself... It's amazing how fast a busy commuter train can clear out when there's an attack of this kind :)
Nanoscale meadows of grass and flowers could hold the key to increasing the amount of energy that can be stored in ultracapacitors, devices tipped to replace batteries in high-demand applications like electric cars.
Batteries are slow to recharge because they store energy chemically. By contrast, capacitors, which are common in electronics, are short-term stores of electrical energy that charge almost instantaneously but hold little energy.
Breakthrough In Energy Storage: New Carbon Material can store large quantities electricity. Engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have achieved a breakthrough in the use of a one-atom thick structure called "graphene" as a new carbon-based material for storing electrical charge in ultracapacitor devices, perhaps paving the way for the massive installation of renewable energies such as wind and solar power.
Researchers in Norway report that injecting a special type of seawater called "smart water" into certain low-yield oil wells may help boost oil extraction by as much as 60 percent. The study could help meet rising energy demands and provide consumers with some financial relief at the gas pump in the future, the scientists suggest.
Genetically engineered bacteria could make cellulosic ethanol cheaper to manufacture, researchers report. The finding could unlock more energy from the waste products of farming and forestry.
Ethanol from cellulose, the kind of sugar in cornstalks and sawdust, is being promoted as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels, with the advantage that it does not use food crops such as corn as raw materials.
Raon Digital's latest design Everun Note has been priced and resellers are reporting delivery dates now.
Conics.Net reports price @ approx $889 USD.
(they ship the Raon to all countries)
Japanese Site, Sarutek.Com put their price at 99,800 yen.
Both sites are reporting delivery to be 19th Sept 2008
Stay tuned :-)
A new "green" technology developed cooperatively by scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and North Carolina State University (NC State) could lead to production of hydrogen from nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
The AF7500 holds up to 432 SATA Hard Disks, has 16 port FibreChannel and up to 1.5Gbytes / sec through-put.
Researchers here have found a way to convert ethanol and other biofuels into hydrogen very efficiently. A new catalyst makes hydrogen from ethanol with 90 percent yield, at a workable temperature, and using inexpensive ingredients.
Yet another tablet displayed at the IDF conference in San Francisco. This one is from Panasonic and is part of their Toughbook series. It is designed primarily for the medical and health care field so has a large curved handle so it can be carried like a brief case as well. No specifications were give but we can assume it will also be Vista capable and should be built to take abuse. As an R5 owner I can tell you Panasonic Toughbooks are the strongest and most practical notebooks made. Amen…
Intel has just started showing off its UrbanMax. concept UMPC at the IDF conference in San Francisco. Intel has not revealed much about the specs or power except that it has a slide and tilt keyboard, has a resisitive touchscreen and the demo was running Vista so it must have some processing horse power. The slate styled convertible laptop is really too big to be classified as a UMPC but does make a great sub note with a very usable keyboard. Also from the pictures it looks to have the same type of mouse as the Raon Everun uses but god knows where the right and left mouse buttons are.
Scientists studying many different parts of the planet's ecosystems are warning that Earth may be on the verge of a sixth major mass extinction event. In a series of papers published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers examining biodiversity around the globe paint a gloomy picture for the planet's species. Warning signs include recent mass die-offs of amphibians and declining fisheries.
An international team of researchers led by Monash University has used chemicals found in plants to replicate a key process in photosynthesis paving the way to a new approach that uses sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The breakthrough could revolutionize the renewable energy industry by making hydrogen – touted as the clean, green fuel of the future – cheaper and easier to produce on a commercial scale. (didn't MIT announce something similar last week?)
Lenovo IdeaPad U8 MID has just been officially released in China to coincide with the Olympics and authorized by the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee for free viewing of the events via CMMB digital TV. The Lenovo IdeaPad is a10.6-ounce tablet like device that features an 800MHz Intel Atom Z500 CPU, 1GB of RAM upgradeable to 2GB thankfully, 6GB SSD, dual cameras, 5-hour battery life, and support for China’s digital mobile TV. The IdeaPad comes well connected with 802.11b/g wi-fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and EDGE as well as China-specific TD-SCDMA 3G network support and WiMAX. Its expected to be introduced tomorrow at Intel's San Francisco IDF conference.
Hyperion Power Modules has announced that they have received their first customer for 6 of what the company describes as “a small, compact, transportable, nuclear power reactor”. Can I get fries with that?) Each module can supply enough heat to produce about 25 MW of electricity when connected to an efficient steam turbine cycle. Just about enough for a large town or small city. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission currently reviewing their manufacturing license with scheduled manufacturing planed to begin in 2012 and a projected completion sometime in 2015. Sure to be a hit with the neighbors, a single truck can deliver the HPM heat source to a site and the reactor is supposed to be able to produce 70 MW of thermal energy for 5 years. Now if I could get one of these in my car…
“Solarjo Power Purse packs more than just good looks. Appearing at first glance as sleek as any other designer handbag, this classy clutch is studded with enough solar cells to charge a cell phone battery in just two hours.” While functional most of these solar bags have looked anything but stylish but Solarjo’s approach to integrating the solar cells as part fabrics pattern works surprisingly well. The purse has an included battery tucked away inside its lining and uses a USB cable connection that can be used to charge just about any device. The bag is not cheap at $285 and is set to hit the market at the end of 2008.
Mobile Linux phones getting buried by Android? According to Ostatic, Orange has pulled the plug on their plan to deliver Access Linux Platform's OS on a Samsung smartphone later this month. Is this a sign of weakening confidence for small companies supplying mobile Linux for handsets? Researchers at J. Gold and Associates are predicting that Google's Linux-based Android platform will merge with the new and open source mobile platform from Symbian. These two huge organizations would quell any competition from upstarts who might dare to produce Linux-based handsets. Pure speciation but who knows. What does Orange say about their decision? Their take as to why the canceled it is to "a number of advances in mobile technology." mmmm...
As we already know, the fasting growing sector of the computer market today is the newly created UMPC / MID / Mini-note sector and now we have some numbers. Gartner Inc is reporting that worldwide mini-notebook shipments will reach 5.2 million units in 2008 and 8 million units in 2009. Gartner is also predicting that mobile computing devices and the mini-notebooks market is expected to experience strong growth with as many as 50 million mini-notebooks shipped in 2012. Gartner’s Annette Jump said the demand for mini-notebooks is driven by several factors, including screen size, weight, price, ease of use and their basic, but sufficient, PC functionality.
U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) scientists achieved a 40.8% world record in solar cell efficiency that converts 40.8 percent of the light into electricity. This is the highest confirmed efficiency of any photovoltaic device to date. The record setting solar cell design differs from the previous record holders. Traditional cells use germanium wafer as the bottom junction of the device where as the new design uses compositions of gallium indium phosphide and gallium indium arsenide to split the solar spectrum into three equal parts that are absorbed by each of the cell's three junctions for higher potential efficiencies. Known as inverted metamorphic triple-junction solar cells which are extremely thin and light and represents a new class of solar cells. NREL says that these new cells have an advantages in performance, design, operation and cost. Don’t look for these in your local solar market yet as the new cells are more suited for the space satellite market and for terrestrial concentrated photovoltaic arrays.
Oregon has broken ground on the first “Solar Highway” demonstration project. Being installed on Interstate 4 and Interstate 205 interchange in Tualatin, the 8000 square foot solar highway is will consist of a 104 kW solar photovoltaic system slated to product 112,000 kilowatt hours per year. According to CleanTechnica the array will supply 28% of the energy needs where the project is located. The system consisted of solar panels installed along the highway and produce electricity during the day sending the power to the electric grid and at night drawing the power from the grid to power lighting on the highway. The entire solar photovoltaic system cost $1.3 million, and should be completed and operational in December of this year. If all goes well Oregon DOT plans more highway projects with a goal to generate 2 million kWh every year.
THE next time you hear someone blaming "beer goggles" for their behaviour, you may have to believe them. People really do appear more attractive when our perceptions are changed by drinking alcohol.
Say the word “biofuels” and most people think of grain ethanol and biodiesel. But there’s another, older technology called gasification that’s getting a new look from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University.
Anyone who has walked barefoot across a parking lot on a hot summer day knows that blacktop is exceptionally good at soaking up the sun’s warmth. Now, a research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has found a way to use that heat-soaking property for an alternative energy source.
Jenn over at Pocketables.Net has her full review of the Sharp Willcom D4 online now.
You might remember we "unboxed" the D4 on video (this was actually the very unit Jenn now uses!)
Hop on over to read the full review
As a gadget lover I really love Japan since it is a Nerd's Paradise. Not only do nerds flourish here but they even have their own heaven, Akihabara with girls dressed in maids uniforms. If that is not heaven on earth I don't know what is. That said here is a video of a nerd love fest this weekend: The 9th International Model Railroad Convention held at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center. Over 10,000 nerds attended and Fuji TV was on hand to record some video of the trains. So if your ever have a chance to head to Japan don’t forget your pocket protector and polyester pants.
Thanks to Japanprobe for the heads up.
The nasty hot exhaust air that escapes from (my mouth) a car's tailpipe may now improve gas mileage. Researchers are close to meeting a challenge set out by the U.S. Department of Energy to improve fuel economy by converting hot car exhaust into energy to power the vehicle. General Motors and a supplier for BMW AG working with Ohio State University say they are close to meeting the DOE’s goal. Their research into thermoelectrics, creating electricity via temperature differences, may be on the verge of paying off with up to a 10% increase is efficiency. Cost effective thermoelectric generators should be on the verge of production in about three years the article predicts and can works for years as they are not susceptible to wear. One of these hooked up to my mouth could power our office and one up my butt could power a small city! Gonna have to patent the underwear model.
Nissan Motors, a late comer to the hybrid field, has announces that its new FR Hybrid system rivals that of the Toyota Prius in EV Running Distance. While still in prototype stage, the “parallel hybrid” vehicle incorporates a transmission integrating an electric motor and two clutches. Scheduled to be introduced in 2010 in a newly designed car, Nissan claims that their FR Hybrid systems yields about 1.6 times higher mileage than the same vehicles without the system. The unique transmission, which is based on a 7-speed automatic transmission, is equipped with a clutch and a motor instead of a torque converter. It has another clutch on the rear end of the transmission mechanism. With two clutches, the vehicle can run as an EV using only the electric motor. No word on pricing.
Suida Design Labs has started offering up their solar power Sun Table for $2200. Pumping out 13 amp hours at 12 volts, which equals 156 Watt / hours, there is enough juice to run a laptop or portable TV for over 4 hours according to the website. With built in battery located under the table and included inverter for AC devices the Sun Table takes 4 hours to charge fully in direct sunlight. Designed for outdoor use it can get soaked in the rain with no ill effects and is designed to be serviceable so it should lasts for decades. Great for the patios and decks however it is too heavy at 45lbs for any type of portable use.
Google's Street View is currently making the rounds here in Japan, meanwhile it's snapped a house on fire in Eagle Point DrSherwood, AR 72120, USA. A quick video of the SX3 unboxing. We got out hands on the Kohjinsha SX3 from Conics.net and Kabatek.com. The Kohjinsha SX3KP06MA is a UMPC with a built in DVD-RW drive. The cool think about the SX3 is that it is the same size as the Asus EEE PC but has the DVD-RW built in. We compare the 2 computers at the end of the Video. It has a 1.33GHz ATOM CPU with full ATOM chipset, 1GB of RAM with 2GB MAX, and 60GB HDD. So far we are very impressed with the screen which is beautiful and very bright. It has a 1280x768 resolution. The computer also seems very fast and video playback with the nice screen should be good. We will have a full Video Overview by the end of the day. Enjoy.
update: new photos under the hood here
While the norwegian company "Norske Skog" is struggling with unprofitable paper production and trees are rotting from the roots up, the world is researching alternatives to petrol. Scientists believe we should put wood chips in the tank.
An innovative study examined, for the first time, if noseless bicycle saddles would be an effective intervention for alleviating deleterious health effects, erectile dysfunction and groin numbness, caused by bicycling on the traditional saddle with a protruding nose extension.
Joe over at UMPCFever has been playing with the aigo MID P8860 for a few days now.
Check his reviews here
